Project Focus
Portfolio Management
Resideo Technologies is both a new and an old brand. Recently spun out from Honeywell, they are looking to make a name for themselves. I set out to help define their short-term and long-term product roadmap.
CONTEXT
On October 29th, 2018, Honeywell announced that it had completed its spin-off of Resideo Technologies, Inc. A newly formed company with a 130-year legacy, Resideo re-focused on consumer-facing products, emphasizing the connected home. Many of their devices are licensed under the Honeywell Home brand.
As the items around the home grow more connected to the Internet, the ability to track and monitor your home's status increases. More data means better decisions for homeowners, leading to easier accident prevention. As the cost of connected devices and appliances comes down, the demand for these products will go up.
Resideo has more than 13,000 employees. After spinning off from Honeywell, Resideo maintained relationships with more than 110,000 professional contractors, more than 3,000 distributors, and 1,200 original equipment manufacturers, major retailers, and online merchants. Resideo’s current value rides on the Honeywell reputation despite having a new, clearly-defined vision for their brand.
150 million households already have a Honeywell Home product installed within their walls. 6.7 of those millions are utilizing smart devices. The following products are the “DIY” part of Resideo’s portfolio that do not require any professional installation.
Resideo’s diverse portfolio plays across multiple smart home markets. Within each category, different industry leaders are positioning themselves as the best option for homeowners. Resideo is well-positioned to be the first in smart homes to build a comprehensive ecosystem with its existing strengths.
There is a clear area between the mid-priced and top-tier offerings for a strong option at around the $200 point. If it included the benefits of the most expensive offerings, it could compete with them at a lower price point.
If they can boost the capabilities of their lowest-priced options, then they can directly compete with the slightly more expensive devices, as a high-value option.
There is no clear correlation between price and included features among smart thermostats. There is a range of different features, but practical benefits, such as learning user’s behavior and adjusting based on that data to save energy, is considered an industry standard and is promoted across most connected devices.
Many smart home security kits come with a few devices to start with, usually a sensor and a hub or keypad, and offer additional devices for an additional cost. The Honeywell Home option falls within this pattern but includes a more impressive range of devices, such as a security camera, at a lower price than all competition. Each additional device enables further customization and better peace of mind for users.
There is an opportunity to continue to develop additional devices, bringing added functionality to the entire system to help stand apart from the rest of the crowd.
The people seeking out smart home devices all have a few things in common: a home, and a desire to improve it. The following two types of homeowners present specific opportunities to target the Resideo portfolio towards moving forward.
Values Self Sufficiency | Requires Easy DIY Installation
Values Data Privacy | Requires Flexible App Integrations
Values Getting Each Detail Right | Requires Customizable Hardware Sets
The Captain of the Ship is in complete control of her home. She knows where the washing machine always leaks during the winter and exactly which of her windows leaves her most vulnerable to break-ins. She would prefer to monitor the safety of her home herself. The more data she can gather through new smart devices, the more empowered she’ll feel over her domain. Resideo’s existing strengths play well with the values of the Captain of the Ship’s homeownership.
ValuesPeace of Mind | Requires Professional Monitoring
Values Everyday Indulgences | Requires Stylish Hardware
Values Earth Friendliness | Requires Automatic Energy Savings
The Hard-Pressed Homeowner has very little time but has a great deal to lose, whether that’s the value of her home, our the invaluable family members inside. She would rather pay for a professional installation than do it herself. She needs a system for her home that she can trust to keep things running safely and efficiently while managing the other demanding parts of her life. The Hard-Pressed Homeowner cares about her community and what she can do to contribute. She makes a small contribution to the world by reducing her energy usage.
RESULT
I generated ideas, and the top 12 were evaluated based on the ease of implementation from a business perspective and the potential value they would create for the target consumers, the Captains of the Ships, while balancing the behavioral change on the consumer’s need to embrace the solution.
Introduce all new smart products under the Resideo name
Eliminate the mid-tier “Programmable” section of the thermostat portfolio
Build out robust energy usage data reports for homeowners for all devices in the home
Integrate automatic “lights on” and “lights off” into devices as a security feature
Contract professional home security monitoring to provide services to users
Develop a smart water heater to expand the “water” category
Develop smart key- fobs for arming and disarming home security systems
Replace smart
light switches with smart plugs at a lower cost than the switches
Simplify down to one item per function or category, like one security camera
Eliminate thermostats and focus on phone app as hub for smart devices
Develop smart smoke and air alarms for added safely functionality
Create “Build- your-own” security system tool on website based on house information
Not Worth Pursuing
Not Worth Pursuing
Farther Down the Road
Ideas with long development timelines, including any products that are not in the current line-up and require ground-up design and development, that need a significant shift in consumer behavior are better candidates for further down the product pipeline than the home run ideas.
Targeted Opportunites for Today
Ideas that require more investment in change from Resideo than the consumer are ideal candidates for today’s development projects. This group of ideas will build upon the existing smart Honeywell Home products and set their benefits apart from competitors, further building Resideo’s lead in flexibility and control.
Kat Reiser | Made with ❤️ in Chicago | 2021